Crowds protesting billionaire Elon Musk's purge of the U.S. government under President Trump began amassing outside Tesla dealerships throughout the U.S. and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the world's richest man .

The protesters are trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musk's role as the head of the newly created Department of of Government Efficiency , or DOGE, where he's gained access to sensitive data and shuttered entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending. Most of Musk's estimated $340 billion fortune consists of the stock he holds in the electric vehicle company that he continues to run while also working alongside Mr. Trump.

Earlier protests have been somewhat sporadic. Saturday marked the first attempt to surround all 277 of the automaker's showrooms and service centers in the U.S. in hopes of deepening a recent decline in the company's sales.

By early afternoon, crowds ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of protesters had flocked to Tesla locations in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Minnesota and the automaker's home state of Texas. Pictures posted on social media accounts showed protesters brandishing signs such as "Honk if you hate Elon" and "Fight the billionaire broligarchy."

The Tesla Takedown movement also hoped to rally protestors at more than 230 Tesla locations in other parts of the world. Although the turnouts in Europe weren't as large as the crowds in the U.S., the anti-Musk sentiment was similar.

About two dozen protesters held signs lambasting Musk outside a Tesla dealership in London as passing cars and trucks tooted horns in support.

One of the signs displayed at the London protest showed a photo of Musk next to an image of Adolf Hitler making the Nazi salute a gesture that Musk has been accused of reprising shortly after Mr. Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration. A person in a tyrannosaurus rex costume held another sign with a picture of Musk's straight-arm gesture that said, "You thought the Nazis were extinct. Don't buy a Swasticar."

"We just want to get loud, make noise, make people aware of the problems that we're facing," said Cam Whitten, an American who showed up at the London protest.

Tesla Takedown was organized by a group of supporters that included disillusioned owners of the automaker's vehicles, celebrities such as actor John Cusack, and at least one Democratic Party lawmaker, Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Dallas.

"I'm going to keep screaming in the halls of Congress. I just need you all to make sure you all keep screaming in the streets," Crockett said during a Tesla Takedown organizing call held earlier this month.

In New York City, mayoral hopeful and New York state Rep. Zohran Mamdani joined protesters at a Tesla showroom on Saturday.

"We are here in a moment that demands all of us," Mandani told the crowd through a megaphone. "It demands all of us because the richest man in the world has purchased the president of the United States."

Some people opposed to Musk have gone beyond protests and set the automaker's vehicles on fire and committed other acts of vandalism that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has decried as "nothing short of domestic terrorism." Musk indicated he was dumbfounded by the attacks during a March 20 company meeting and said the vandals should "stop acting psycho."

Crockett and other Tesla Takedown supporters have been stressing the importance for Saturday's protests to remain peaceful.

But police were investigating a fire that destroyed seven Tesla vehicles in northwestern Germany early Saturday morning. It was wasn't immediately clear if the blaze, which was extinguished by firefighters, was related to the Tesla Takedown protests.

There have been vandalisms at Tesla dealerships acrossing the U.S., including fires in Nevada and Missouri, and graffiti at locations in Massachusetts and Maryland, CBS News previously reported.

Since January 2025, incidents targeting Tesla EVs have occurred in at least nine states, according to a joint intelligence bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security and FBI and obtained by CBS News. Although U.S. intelligence suggests lone actors are behind them, Trump administration officials are promising to crack down on what they say are coordinated attacks.

There have also been reports of vandalism to parked Teslas, making individual owners nervous.

"My wife cautions me, 'Be careful where you are at with it,'" Bill Fonte told CBS New York . "If you don't like the product, don't buy it. But they're going above and beyond, creating panic and concern for normal people like me."

A growing number of consumers who bought Tesla vehicles before Musk took over DOGE have been looking to sell or trade in their cars while others have slapped on bumper stickers seeking to distance themselves from the billionaire's efforts to prune or shut down government agencies.

But Musk didn't appear concerned about an extended slump in sales of new Tesla cars in his March 20 address to employees. He reassured the workers that the company's Model Y, which is undergoing a refresh, would remain "the best-selling car on Earth again this year." He also predicted Tesla will have sold more than 10 million cars worldwide by next year, up from about 7 million cars now.

"There are times when there are rocky moments, where there is stormy weather, but what I am here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting," Musk said.

After Mr. Trump was elected last November, investors initially saw Musk's alliance with the president as a positive development for Tesla and its long-running efforts to launch a network of self-driving cars.

That optimism helped lift Tesla's stock by 70% in the period between Mr. Trump's Nov. 5 election and his Jan. 20 inauguration, creating an additional $560 billion in shareholder wealth. But virtually all those gains have evaporated amid investor worries about the Tesla backlash, lagging sales in the U.S., Europe and China, and Musk spending time overseeing DOGE.

"This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a research note leading up to Saturday's protests.

周六，抗议亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克在特朗普政府下清除美国政府官员的群众开始在美国各地特斯拉经销商外聚集，同时在欧洲一些城市也进行了这样的活动，这是最新一次试图削弱世界上最富有的人的财富的尝试。

抗议者试图扩大运动，将目标对准特斯拉的经销商和车辆，以反对马斯克作为新成立政府效率部门（DOGE）负责人的角色。在该部门中，他获得了接触敏感数据的机会，并关闭了整个机构，以试图削减政府开支。马斯克估计的340亿美元财富中大部分是他持有的电动汽车公司的股票，他继续经营该公司的同时，也与特朗普先生一起工作。

早先的抗议活动较为零散。周六标志着首次尝试将美国所有277家汽车制造商的展厅和服务中心包围，以希望进一步加深该公司近期销售下滑的趋势。

到当天下午早些时候，从几十人到数百人的抗议人群涌向了位于新泽西州、马萨诸塞州、康涅狄格州、纽约州、马里兰州、明尼苏达州以及特斯拉总部所在州——德克萨斯州的特斯拉门店。社交媒体账户上发布的照片显示，抗议者高举着标语，如“如果你恨埃隆，就按喇叭”和“与亿万富翁的统治阶层抗争”。

特斯拉（Tesla）打压运动也希望在全球其他230多个特斯拉门店集结抗议者。尽管欧洲的参与者数量不如美国，但反马斯克（Musk）的情绪是相似的。

大约二十多名抗议者举着标语在伦敦的一家特斯拉经销商外抗议埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk），与此同时，路过的汽车和卡车鸣笛表示支持。

在伦敦抗议活动上展示的标语之一是一张马斯克与阿道夫·希特勒（Adolf Hitler）的纳粹礼手势照片，这一行为被指发生在特朗普2021年1月20日就职后不久。一个穿着霸王龙（Tyrannosaurus Rex）服装的人手持另一张标语，上面画着马斯克伸直手臂的姿势，并写道：“你以为纳粹已经灭绝了。别买Swasticar。”

美国来的卡姆·惠特顿（Cam Whitten）在伦敦的抗议活动中表示“我们只是想要引起注意，让更多人意识到我们正在面临的问题。”

特斯拉揭露行动是由一群支持者组织的，其中包括对该汽车制造商车辆感到失望的车主、演员约翰·卡萨克等名人，以及至少一位民主党议员，来自达拉斯的贾斯敏·克罗克特议员。

克罗克特（Crockett）在本月早些时候举行的一次Tesla Takedown组织会议上表示：“我将在国会的大厅里继续呼喊。我只需要你们所有人确保你们在街头继续呼喊。”

在纽约市，市长候选人兼纽约州代表Zohran Mamdani于周六在一家特斯拉展厅加入了抗议者行列。

曼达尼通过扩音器向人群说道：“我们正处在一个需要所有人的时刻。这需要所有人，因为世界上最富有的人已经购买了美国总统。”

一些反对马斯克的人士的行动已经超出了抗议的范畴，他们纵火焚烧了该汽车制造商的车辆，并实施了其他被美国司法部长帕姆·邦迪（Pam Bondi）斥为“等同于国内恐怖主义”的破坏行为。在3月20日的一次公司会议上，马斯克表示他对这些攻击感到震惊，并称这些破坏者应该“停止做出疯狂的举动。”

克罗克特（Crockett）和其他特斯拉（Tesla）拆解支持者一直强调，周六的抗议活动保持和平的重要性。

但警方正在调查周六早上在德国西北部发生的一起火灾，这场火灾摧毁了七辆特斯拉汽车。尚不清楚这场由消防员扑灭的火灾是否与特斯拉罢免抗议活动有关。

CBS新闻此前报道，美国各地的特斯拉经销商遭遇了破坏行为，包括内华达州和密苏里州的火灾，以及马萨诸塞州和马里兰州的涂鸦。

根据国土安全部和FBI联合发布的情报通报，并由CBS新闻获得的信息，自2025年1月起，至少有九个州的特斯拉电动汽车遭遇了针对性袭击。尽管美国情报显示这些袭击是由单独的行动者所为，但特朗普政府官员承诺将打击他们所说的协同攻击。

也有报道称，停放的特斯拉汽车遭到破坏，这使得个别车主感到紧张。

比尔·方特（Bill Fonte）向CBS纽约透露，他的妻子警告他：“小心你的言行。”他说：“如果你不喜欢这个产品，就不要买。但他们做得过头了，为像我这样的普通人制造了恐慌和担忧。”

随着马斯克接管DOGE后，越来越多的之前购买特斯拉汽车的消费者正考虑出售或换购他们的汽车，而另一些消费者则在车尾贴上贴纸，试图与这位亿万富翁削减或关闭政府机构的努力划清界限。

在3月20日对员工的讲话中，马斯克似乎并不担心特斯拉新车销售会继续下滑。他向员工保证，公司正在进行更新的Model Y将“再次成为今年全球最畅销的汽车”。他还预测，到明年，特斯拉将售出超过1000万辆汽车，目前这一数字约为700万辆。

马斯克表示：“有时会遇到充满挑战的时刻，就像暴风雨来临的天气，但我要告诉你们的是，未来是无比光明和令人兴奋的。”

在特朗普先生去年11月当选后，投资者最初将马斯克与总统的联盟视为特斯拉及其长期致力于推出自动驾驶汽车网络计划的积极发展。

在特朗普11月5日当选和1月20日就职期间，这种乐观情绪帮助特斯拉股价上涨了70%，为股东创造了额外的5600亿美元的财富。然而，几乎所有这些收益都因投资者对特斯拉反弹、美国、欧洲和中国销售滞后以及马斯克花时间监督DOGE的担忧而蒸发。

在周六抗议活动前发布的研报中，韦德布什证券公司分析师丹·艾维斯（Dan Ives）表示，对于马斯克而言，这依旧是考验他如何应对这一品牌旋风危机，并引领特斯拉走出这一黑暗章节的关键时刻。